Opinion Rap Re-wrapped By Joseph LaPenta	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
焼き直しのラップ アメリカのミュージック・シーンを彩る ラップ、ジャズ、ラグタイム、ブルースなどは、 本来黒人が創り出した音楽なのである。

About ten years ago I went into a local video rental shop and heard gangsta rap in a Japanese setting for the first time. Blasting from loudspeakers, the lyrics were full of profanity, violence and hilariously gross obscenity. Not just the usual "f" word, but words for body parts and sex acts that are still banned from radio and TV today. Around me, customers of all ages were smiling and swaying to the rhythms - and not understanding one single word. Needless to say, such lyrics are unthinkable in Japanese.

The word "rap" has a narrow but intense range of meanings. As a verb, it means to hit, and to criticize or blame. A police arrest record is a "rap sheet," and a false accusation is called a "bum rap." This is the language of the ghetto streets, where many young people have no jobs, no hope and a lot of anger. No wonder they often turn to crime to change their lives. Rap's passionate honesty has influenced almost every other form of communication, from pop music to poetry, from everyday speech to advertising. It is no surprise that rap has been taken up by America's predominantly White mass culture.

In 1959, an American writer, Norman Mailer, published an essay titled "The White Negro: Reflections on the Hipster." He described a culturally influential group of White Americans who imitated the lifestyle of Black jazz musicians. These "hipsters" used Black slang, dressed like Blacks, ate Black food, and even tried to move, walk and dance like Black people. That was when African Americans were called "Negroes," before they became "Blacks" in the 1960s and then "African Americans" in the 1990s.

But Whites imitating Blacks is an old story. In the minstrel shows of the 19th century, white musicians performed in black makeup, with a "black face." White audiences, guilty about slavery and the oppression of blacks, were amused and relieved to witness these happy, harmless "Black" people, singing and dancing.

But for well over a century, real Black people have been creating much of America's musical culture. Jazz, ragtime, Dixieland, the blues, boogie-woogie, rock 'n' roll and R＆B were almost wholly the inventions of African Americans. Yet these forms were hijacked by White musicians and the music industry. Many of the big Swing bands of the 1930s and 1940s paid Black musicians to arrange their music, but never credited their Black arrangers. Like the minstrels before them, they made something with a "Black" flavor acceptable to the White majority - and they got rich in the process.

In the last few years, Eminem has attracted lots of attention by imitating the sound and style of Black rap. He used to rant against women and gays, but he was never as sexy, profane or powerfully scary as Black rappers. Middle-aged White baby-boomers like him as much as their teenage kids do. Recently he has even starred in a movie where he's kind to women, defends gays and looks sensitive, even sweet. His name sounds a lot like M＆M, the American candy. The chocolate on the outside is really just thin brown sugar, but the core is sticky and sweet. Will he be successful in Japan? Probably. Here, style, surface and packaging are everything, and no one really understands the words.

Shukan ST: June 27, 2003

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